1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to flavonoid derivatives and, more particularly, to a flavonoid derivative or the pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof that may be used in a pharmaceutical composition for preventing and treating cancer and inflammation.
2. Description of the Background
Natural physiological cell death occurs primarily through apoptosis, i.e., a form of programmed cell death that plays a key role in our body's natural process of destroying infected or damaged cells. Cancer comprises a group of over 100 different forms of disease, all of which share a common characteristic: too little apoptosis. Cancer or tumor cells have a damaged genetic composition resulting in abnormal cell cycles and unrestrained cell proliferation.
The increased focus on cellular biology has led to a profusion of drugs to treat cancer. These drugs include alkylating agents, intercalating agents, antimetabolites, etc., most of which target DNA or enzymes regulating the DNA duplication and elongation process. However, the great majority of the drugs currently available for treatment of cancer are toxic and involve detrimental side-effects on healthy cells, tissues and organs. A successful anticancer drug should kill or incapacitate cancer cells without causing excessive damage to normal cells. Plants have long-supplied the active ingredients of traditional medicinal products. Consequently, plants are increasingly relied upon as sources for new commercially viable drug leads. Flavonoids in particular are one of the most preferred groups of natural chemotypes tested for biological activities. Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids) are a class of plant secondary metabolites. Flavonoids have low toxicity aid are widely available in a variety of plants. Chemically, flavonoids have the general structure of a 15-carbon skeleton, including two phenyl rings (A and B) and heterocyclic ring (C). This carbon structure can be abbreviated C6-C3-C6.
Flavanone is a type of flavonoid represented by chemical formula 1:

Flavanone is generally glycosylated by a disaccharide at position seven to give flavanone glycosides.
Flavone is another class of flavonoids based on the backbone of 2-phenylchromen-4-one (2-phenyl-1-benzopyran-4-one) represented by chemical formula 2:

Flavanols are another class of flavonoids with the 3-hydroxyflavone backbone represented in chemical formula 3:

The diversity between different types of flavanols stems from the different positions the phenolic —OH groups.
The present inventors have isolated very bioactive flavonoid molecules selected from among the groups of Flavone, Flavanone and Flavanol, and has successfully tested their activity against several cancer cell lines including brain, breast, Kaposi sarcoma, leukemia, lung, melanoma, ovarian, pancreatic, colon and prostate cancer. The present invention provides a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of cancer and inflammation with flavanoid-based compounds having the structure of the general formula of chemical formula 1 or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof as an active ingredient. The present invention also provides a method for the prevention and treatment of cancer and inflammation using a flavanone-based pharmaceutical composition having the structure of chemical formula 4, as well as a method for isolating said pharmaceutical composition from raw plant material and for synthesizing said pharmaceutical composition.